An Initiative By Jamnabai Narsee School - ISC

Curb the problem, bring a change.

Jamnabai Narsee School

include several famous dignitaries and celebrities.

Jamnabai Narsee School is a private school in Mumbai, Maharashtra, India. It was founded on January 17, 1971 and

is managed by the Narsee Monjee Educational Trust. The school building is unusual in architecture with three clusters of hexagonal classrooms, each with a central foyer. The school is

attended by children from all over Mumbai, and its alumni

T R I S H I TA D A S

R I YA S H E T H

A D I T YA M A D N A N I

S H W E TA N C B O T H R A

A A L I A J O H N

Everyone complains about

the inconvenience caused by the traffic. It was time to do

something. One small initiative, one large relief.

The traffic jam outside the school

poses a huge problem each

morning, not only for students but

also for the residents of the

area. We wanted to do our bit to change that.

We tried to ‘tame the traffic’ problem outside our school. So,

we put our heart and soul in

trying to address the issue. Be the change you want

to see!

Our endeavour was to steer our

community - within school and outside

- towards better traffic

management. We put in our efforts, hoping everyone

follows suit!

Nothing can be worse than

beginning each day with the

cacophony and chaos that comes

with traffic. We were determined

to change this scenario!

sailesh

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In an attempt to make a difference, we stepped out to observe our neighbourhood. The Juhu Vile Parle Development Scheme area houses over a thousand residents and all of them grudgingly deal with the frantic problem of traffic. Ironically, the school vicinity, a 'silent zone', ends up an obstreperous mess. That's when we realised that around 5,000 students and staff enter the school en masse, flooding the narrow streets. When the problem lies right before us, we asked ourselves - shouldn't we change this?

T H E S O L U T I O N ?

S O L U T I O N S !We came up with many ideas:

6. Creating awareness through a poster making competition

7. Performing a skit to promote the initiative

8. Promoting the use of the school bus

9. Encouraging students to walk to school

1. Conducting an assembly2. Informing parents through

e-newsletters3. Creating car-pool groups

4. Setting up a reward system5. Directing the traffic personally

rubothra@outlook.com

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Assemblies were conducted from the Nursery to Grade Twelve in the following manner: •Enacted a skit to present to the students how traffic congestion affects everyone •Congratulated the students who travel by bus, walk or carpool •Highlighted the problem and the chaos caused by “untamed” traffic. •Briefed them on the advantages of carpooling and collective alighting

rubothra@outlook.com

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•Divided the students according to the areas they reside in •Posed the question: which is better 5 students and 5 cars VS 5 students and 1 car? (Hint: the latter) •Promoted the use of school bus facilities •All students living in the vicinity were requested and encouraged to WALK!

every parent.

E-NEWSLETTERS

Making the teachers and students aware, though

effective, was not enough. Our campaign had to expand

beyond the boundaries of our school. Every parent of the

school is connected via emails, and this platform was used to notify them. E-newsletters of

Tame the Traffic, incorporating the hazards and

solutions to the traffic problem, were sent to

Students could select a sub-topic from a list including ‘No honking’, ‘Breaking Traffic

Congestion’, ‘Carpools’ and many others. After an hour and a half of sketching and painting, the message was

conveyed.

POSTER-MAKING COMPETITIONKids love art. Well, most of them. So, we held a poster

making competition for every class, and the topic was, of course, Tame the Traffic!

Stepping onto the roads, at peak hour, we went and tried to control the congestion, asking parents to drop off their children at

the drop-off locations. Collectively alighting from the cars was encouraged to smoothen the traffic movement. We urged every parent and driver to follow suit and

effectively helped to tame the traffic.

We interviewed several parents, students and teachers. It was only the second day of our

campaign and the response was overwhelmingly positive! Everyone had noticed the difference that was made. WE MADE A CHANGE!

“The traffic was MUCH less today.”

“I think this is an excellent initiative. It was required.”

“It was surprising to find no one honking. Good job!”

“I think everything proceeded more smoothly today.”

RESPONSE

A C K N O W L E D G E M E N T S :

• Aditya Ghosh - Photography

• Ninaad Kulshreshtha - Photography

• A big thank you to all the volunteers of Std XI & XII for conducting the assemblies

• Sudeeti GM - Photography

• Harsh Bhatt - Photography, Editing, Compilation

T H A N K Y O U